Ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy resigned his seat in Congress at the end of December, declaring in a Wall Street Journal column that he was leaving “to serve America in new ways. I know my work is only getting started.” His service to America now seems to center on trashing the extremists he once loved.
Now McCarthy has decided to revile the Freedom Caucus, blaming everything that’s wrong with the House on them. McCarthy went on Fox Business Monday and was asked by host Maria Bartoromo why the House once again decided to “kick the can down the road” and do another short-term funding bill. “You really should be asking the Freedom Caucus. They are the ones who have stopped the Republicans from being able to govern,” McCarthy said.
Sure, now he’ll admit the maniacs are why nothing is getting done. That’s after he courted them to support his speaker bid right after the November 2022 midterms when the Republicans won the House, a meeting that didn’t go so well for McCarthy; one member emerged saying he was “99% confident” the group would challenge McCarthy with one of their own. So McCarthy just kept on wooing them, giving the plum organizing seats ahead of the new Congress and praising them: “The strength of our conference is the talent of everybody and how do we utilize everybody’s talent.”
That wasn’t enough for the extremists, so McCarthy just kept giving them more during the 15 rounds of voting it took to get the speaker’s gavel. Those concessions amounted to McCarthy handing the maniacs the keys to the place. Two of the concessions McCarthy made guaranteed a House majority that could not function, and they’re biting new Speaker Mike Johnson in the ass. The first was that just one member could bring a motion to vacate—the sword of Damocles that is hanging over anyone in the job. The other was giving the hardliners a controlling bloc of votes on the powerful Rules Committee, the committee that decides which bills get to the floor and which amendments will be allowed. McCarthy gave the maniacs veto power over House business.
That wasn’t enough for the Freedom Caucus, who held their control of McCarthy’s leadership position over him to the bitter end. He catered to them and coddled them in all of his decision-making despite the fact that it was impossible to meet their demands in real life, because in real life, their demands are impossible. Government can’t be starved of funding. The Senate and the president still have a say in what gets done.
Now McCarthy is acknowledging all that and trying to assume the mantle of elder statesman, imparting his wisdom on what the House should do. “It really comes down to, what’s a true conservative? And I look for Ronald Reagan. A conservative is one that can actually govern in a conservative way,” McCarthy said. “But what you’re finding now is, what they’re doing is doing nothing but locks in Democratic Pelosi policies.”
That’s McCarthy’s new public persona. Behind the scenes, he’s intent on getting real revenge, starting with Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, one of the eight who voted to oust him. He’s working to get Mace’s former chief of staff, Dan Hanlon, to take her on in this year’s primaries.
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